[C+C] 16 12-bit colors swordsman

[spektre]

It's been quite a while since I posted here, but I would like some critique on this piece. It's composed of 16 12-bit colors where one is transparency. I'm having some trouble finishing the sword, so any thoughts on that would be appreciated.



"Final" idle stance:


First attempt at a walking frame:


Edit on the walking frame:

[spektre]

Edited the sword and hand, added some outlines, and tried a cleaner approach on the shirt and pants. The goal is to use him as the main character in a game, but we'll see where that ends up.

Please, critique and comments are very welcome! How's the palette working out for example?

[Psiweapon]

The second one looks very nice, the palette gives it a grim look (it's quite cold and whatnot)

Edited the sword and hand, added some outlines, and tried a cleaner approach on the shirt and pants. The goal is to use him as the main character in a game, but we'll see where that ends up.

Please, critique and comments are very welcome! How's the palette working out for example?

[Joe]

In the palette, you have many colors that are too similar in value.  This leads to redundancies in your piece.  Also you should consider how your sprite will fare on different colored backgrounds.  For example, Pixelation's background is quite neutral and yet your sprite is having trouble showing up against it.  Here's a quick edit:

->

I didn't do much, other than tweak the colors.  Mainly I tried to improve readability of the sprite.  Yes, he's wearing a necklace but it's not going to be glowing in shadow.  And yes he has strands of hair but we don't need to see them individually when zoomed out like so.  I gave it an outline, which is up to you obviously.  But at 1x, mine's showing up more clearly.  Another thing you should get in the habit of is recycling colors.  The brown on the pants and the purple on the shield for example.  We know his shirt is not brown, or purple.  But put them in between the light and dark shades of green, and the transition is much smoother and the shirt still reads green.

As I said, it was a quick edit.  If I were to go further, I'd up the saturation a bit, I'd tweak the relationships of the colors and get a nice value/saturation ramp going, and I'd probably define things more clearly.  What kind of game are you considering?

[spektre]

Edit:

I looked at some relevant swords and shields and realized that it would be cooler if he were holding a larger, flatter shield.  The hilt shouldn't be that protruding either.

The second one looks very nice, the palette gives it a grim look (it's quite cold and whatnot)

Thanks, grim sounds just like how I want it.

In the palette, you have many colors that are too similar in value.  This leads to redundancies in your piece.  Also you should consider how your sprite will fare on different colored backgrounds.  For example, Pixelation's background is quite neutral and yet your sprite is having trouble showing up against it.

Thanks for the feedback.  I think I managed to space the colors a bit and I even eliminated one.  I also added some outlines to try to attack the problem with blending in with the background.

Yes, he's wearing a necklace but it's not going to be glowing in shadow.  And yes he has strands of hair but we don't need to see them individually when zoomed out like so.  I gave it an outline, which is up to you obviously.  But at 1x, mine's showing up more clearly.  Another thing you should get in the habit of is recycling colors.  The brown on the pants and the purple on the shield for example.  We know his shirt is not brown, or purple.  But put them in between the light and dark shades of green, and the transition is much smoother and the shirt still reads green.

The necklace I really should've gotten right from the start, thanks for pointing it out.  The strands in the hair I'd like to keep, I think of some kind of dreads-like thing going on, maybe dirt or something. At any rate, he doesn't have a steady supply of soap.  I really like how you can magic colors around like that and want to learn how to pull it off, so thanks for that input too.

What kind of game are you considering?

Nothing that special, just some personal project for honing my programming and pixeling skills.  I'm thinking a platformer with some special sparring moves involving the shield.

[Decroded]

I really like this guy - an ancient Swedish warrior perhaps?
I spotted him when you first posted but couldn't crit at the time.
General tone of colours is great but with the latest one you might want to watch out for how those blue tones will recede and blend into the background.
I like what Joe did with the hair as a flat colour - gives it a much smoother feel than having noisy lines of pixel highlights like you have which makes him look like an old grey jamacan guy with dreads. If you want hair highlight perhaps a single patch like I have edited in Joe's version here:


While I was at it I tried to resolve the legs which bother me a bit and touched up a few pixels around face.
Here is a reference that I was thinking of (though not looking at) for the legs.

(thread http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/31255.htm - I can stare at this animation for hours lol).

[spektre]

Latest:

I really like this guy - an ancient Swedish warrior perhaps?
I spotted him when you first posted but couldn't crit at the time.
General tone of colours is great but with the latest one you might want to watch out for how those blue tones will recede and blend into the background.

Ancient Swedish warrior sounds like it yes, I'm not sure if that geography will be consistent with the game though.
I saw what you meant by the blue tones, and changed them.

I like what Joe did with the hair as a flat colour - gives it a much smoother feel than having noisy lines of pixel highlights like you have which makes him look like an old grey jamacan guy with dreads.
<snip>

Okay okay, two against one, I made my own hair edit and I have to admit it looks better.

While I was at it I tried to resolve the legs which bother me a bit and touched up a few pixels around face.
<snip>

Yeah they were bothering me too, I tried to improve them in this edit.

Thanks for the input!

[Decroded]

I saw you were Swedish in your profile ;-)

Hair looks better, I personally think you could do with that little beard highlight on the cheek in my edit just to pop the face out a bit.
Also have a look what I did with the shoulder and pectoral just to highlight a little, you try something similar but with the hair where it is you can also add a subtle shadow for the shoulder and see how that looks - its just that is kinda pillow shaded atm.

Legs don't look right IMO, mainly the back leg is akward just need to drop that knee down a touch and fix the foot, but also front looks like shin is too long and top of leg is too short just a little bit.

Keep going!
I'm keen to see some more artwork and designs.
What programming language are you using to build the game?

[spektre]

Latest:

I saw you were Swedish in your profile ;-)

Yes, I figured.  I'm thinking of calling the game Vikings and Zombies.  Everyone knows a good game should be named "X and Y".  Also, contain zombies. 

Hair looks better, I personally think you could do with that little beard highlight on the cheek in my edit just to pop the face out a bit.

Done.

Also have a look what I did with the shoulder and pectoral just to highlight a little, you try something similar but with the hair where it is you can also add a subtle shadow for the shoulder and see how that looks - its just that is kinda pillow shaded atm.

I'm not sure, but I think I know what you mean, I shaded the upper torso a bit.

Legs don't look right IMO, mainly the back leg is akward just need to drop that knee down a touch and fix the foot, but also front looks like shin is too long and top of leg is too short just a little bit.

Yeah, those darn legs. How about now?

Keep going!
I'm keen to see some more artwork and designs.
What programming language are you using to build the game?

I'm thinking of starting on some animation frames or more characters/creatures, we'll see where I go.  I'm using C++ together with SDL and OpenGL, writing mainly for GNU/Linux but trying to keep it platform independent as a part of the honing.

[Decroded]

Awesome! Sounds so cool :-)
Can't wait to see him hacking through some zombies!
Its good that you took the blue out because I'm assuming there will be alot of snow?

Legs are much better. You could straighten the front shin a little to define it but it does give a good puffy fur-skin boot look as it is.
I like what you did with the back calf.
I think it would look better if back foot was firmly planted on the ground, at the moment it sort of looks like it is up on its toe but is a bit odd looking.
I went for flat foot also because of the weight of the shield.

Here's another edit I did partly because he is fun to edit 
I tried to emphasise the chest again but maybe its too much.
Also tried to make the hair highlights instead of just all bright - top of head doesn't look quite right on mine but just watch out for how your version looks against black or a dark background.

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